


forever is composed of nows

by pitchblackkoi



Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Canon Asexual Character, Fluff, Getting Together, Kid Fic, M/M, Single Parent Martin Blackwood, Trans Martin Blackwood, and also discussion of literature topics, basically i made jon a english lit student so i could rant, far more discussion of the narnia series than there should be, georgie and gerry also show up but i am not tagging them because they show up in one scene, it's the magnes au y'all
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-09
Updated: 2019-08-09
Packaged: 2020-08-13 23:48:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,911
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20182741
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pitchblackkoi/pseuds/pitchblackkoi
Summary: Jon never thought of himself as the type to have a family, or romance in general for that matter. Martin never thought that he would have another partner after Agnes's dad left. But when Agnes brings the two together it gives them hope for a new and better life together.





	forever is composed of nows

It’s really just like any day when it happens. Jon is in the library, looking through books and scrutinizing their usefulness. He’s tired, but he always is these days, and considering how soon he could reasonably get some caffeine into his system. He’s grumbling to himself under his breath and about to add the book in his hand to the stack in his arms when he locks eyes with a little girl.

She’s a little thing, early primary school he should think, with auburn hair and freckles across her pale little face. She’s wearing a little blue dress with white flowers patterned on it and little black shoes. She also probably shouldn’t be here. Not by herself, at the very least. 

Jon slowly puts the book into his stack while staring at the little girl, feeling the crease between his eyebrows deepen. “Hello,” he says cautiously.

“Hi,” the girl greets brightly.

“Are you… here with someone?” he asks.

She nods. The girl looks up at him with curious amber eyes, rocking her feet forwards and backwards. Jon is so incredibly out of his element.

“You should get back to them then. I imagine they’re quite worried about you,” he tells her.

She frowns a little and looks at the floor, twisting her little fingers into the hem of her dress. “I don’t know where my dad is,” she says quietly, voice shaking a bit.

He frowns, trying to think fast. He doesn’t want her to start crying. He has no idea what to do with a crying child. “Do you remember what he was looking for?”

“He said he was doing research on a haunted house for his friend,” she answers.

Jon’s mouth twists a bit at the description, but that isn’t what is important right now. He holds out a hand to her. “Let’s see if we can find your father.”

Her face lights up and she grabs his hand enthusiastically. “Okay!”

He starts leading her out of the aisle, his books tucked under his other arm. He’ll still need those later. If her father is doing research on a haunted location he may be in the history section, which isn’t far from where he is currently. 

“I’m Agnes,” the little girl pipes up. “What’s your name?”

“I’m Jon,” he answers.

“It’s nice to meet you,” she says as if rehearsed.

“You as well,” Jon answers distractedly, looking down aisles of bookshelves. “Do let me know if you spot your father.” 

Out of the corner of his eye he sees her nod vigorously, red hair flying everywhere, and start looking with him. She gets a look of concentration on her face, a small line between her eyebrows and a slight frown to her lips. She really does remind him of himself as a child, too intelligent and curious for his own good. 

Jon feels a slight squeeze of his hand and sees that Agnes’ face has shifted into a wide and relieved smile. He follows her line of sight to see a tall man with tan skin and freckles across his nose shifting around anxiously. He watches as the man’s eyes land on Agnes and widen. He sets the books down on a nearby table and rushes forward. Agnes lets go of Jon’s hand to do the same.

“Agnes,” the man says, lifting his daughter up into a hug. “I couldn’t find you. I was _ so worried _.”

“I’m sorry, daddy,” she tells him, voice muffled in his shirt. “I got lost and didn’t know how to get back.” She lifts her head and looks back at Jon. “But Jon found me and brought me back!”

Her father lifts an eyebrow and looks at Jon, apparently not having realized he was there. Jon doesn’t know what to do in this situation so he just waves awkwardly. The man cracks a small smile and walks forward, still holding his daughter. 

“I didn’t see you there, sorry,” he apologizes. “I’m Martin, Agnes’s father, though you must have guessed that. Thank you for bringing her back, I was worried sick when I couldn’t find her. I looked away for one second and she had wandered off.” 

“It’s no trouble,” Jon insists. “Honestly, I used to wander off a lot as a child myself. I figure the least I can do to make up for it is to help someone else.”

Martin’s smile widens fractionally, his eyes softening. “All the same, not everyone would have done that,” he says. 

“I hear you’re researching a haunted house?” he questions, eyebrows raised a little.

He goes a little red at that, ducking his head. “Oh, yeah. I- I, uh, do research for the Ghost Hunt UK team. Just on the side because I know a few of them and they pay pretty decently,” he explains and lifts Agnes up a little. “Raising a daughter by yourself tends to be quite hard.”

“I’m not judging you,” Jon says. He pauses. “Okay, maybe a little bit, but I actually do know a few people who work in that field. Besides, I am not really in a position to critique your choice of books.” He looks at the books stacked in his arms, turning them so Martin can see the titles: _ Ghost Stories of an Antiquary _ , _ Psycho _ , _ Red Dragon _.

Martin raises an eyebrow and looks up at Jon with a wry little grin. “A bit of light reading?” he asks.

“It’s research for my thesis, actually,” he admits before looking down at his watch. Damn, has it really gotten that late? “Which I should probably get back to. It was nice to meet you both.”

“You, too,” Martin says, sounding sincere. “Thank you again.”

He looks down at Agnes until she dutifully says “Thank you for helping me.”

“It’s no problem,” he assures again and walks off with a small wave.

Jon isn’t usually the sort of man who enjoys encounters with strangers, but he finds that he didn’t really mind talking to Martin or Agnes. It wasn’t as draining as conversations with people who don’t know him well normally are. But he has work to do, so he shrugs off the strange encounter and continues with his research.

***

Jon has never had the widest social circle, which means that the one that he does have knows him well enough to be demanding about seeing him. Casual suggestions of meeting up have never worked for him, he would just forget the next time he got absorbed in something (and he would, inevitably, get so absorbed in something he would forget to come up for air). Georgie and Gerry know to text him reminders, though they often get carried away with it and send far too many. 

_ Really _ , Jon thinks as he looks at the notification telling him that he’s gotten _ another _ text from Georgie. _ As if I would forget that Gerry has just gotten back into the country. _

He shoves his phone back into his coat pocket with a sigh. There’s no point in answering it seeing as he’s practically at Georgie’s doorstep. In fact, he walks up and lets himself into the building. He rubs at his face as he makes his way down the hall to Georgie’s flat. He knows they’re both just going to hound him about taking breaks and having a social life. He is well aware that the two of them worry about him, but it can get rather tiresome. He knocks on Georgie’s door, ready to get it over with.

Georgie opens the door with a smile. “Good, you didn’t forget then,” she says instead of greeting him and steps aside to let him in.

“Yes, hello to you too, Georgie,” Jon grumbles as he enters her flat.

Her flat is nice and open, with used furniture that looks charming instead of tacky and enough clutter to feel lived in. He turns into the living room to find Gerry seated on the couch with the Admiral in his lap. He looks much the same as he always does, black hair loose around his shoulders and wearing all black as he always does, the t-shirt he’s wearing showing off the tattoos that cover his arms. 

“Gerry,” Jon greets. “Always good to know you haven’t died.”

Gerry rolls his eyes. “Oh, don’t pretend you aren’t pleased to see me, Jon.”

Jon rolls his eyes right back and takes a seat next to him on the couch, depositing his bag and coat on the coffee table. “Yes, yes, I am glad to see you,” he replies, petting the Admiral in greeting as the cat sniffs at his face. “It has also been months since I’ve seen you.”

“It’s not my fault,” he insists. “I didn’t _ want _ to get stuck in Prague, but it takes _ time _ to get all of the correct materials and _ even longer _ to actually correctly restore everything. _ Especially _when they decide to add extra books at the last minute.”

They have had this conversation over a dozen times, of course. Jon is well aware of how lengthy the process of restoring books is and how long it takes to do correctly. It’s just that he misses Gerry when he isn’t around, but their friendship is more one where they make dry sarcastic comments at each other than one where they genuinely express affection. At this point, the exchange is how he welcomes the man home.

“So, how have you been doing, Jon?” Georgie asks, handing him a cup of tea.

“Fine,” he answers, taking a sip of his tea (it’s made exactly how he likes it, of course). He looks up to see both Georgie and Gerry giving him stern looks. “What? I’m not the one who’s been out of the country for months, why are you questioning me?”

“Yes, well Gerry has been here for a few hours already and I’ve talked to him about it,” she says. “You, on the other hand, I haven’t seen in two weeks and have only gotten monosyllabic texts from.”

“We’re also trying to make sure you aren’t working yourself to death,” Gerry adds. 

“I _ am _an adult you know,” Jon argues.

“Yes, you are,” Georgie agrees. “One who has been known to forgo meals and sleep when he gets caught up with something.”

“Have you even talked to someone who wasn’t one of your students for an extended period of time since you last saw Georgie?” Gerry questions. Jon opens his mouth to answer, but he cuts him off. “Elias doesn’t count. He’s your thesis advisor.”

Jon frowns at them. “I _ have _, actually.”

They both, in unison, raise a skeptical eyebrow at him.

“I did! Just the other day,” he insists.

Georgie makes a _ go on _ gesture as she takes a sip of tea. Jon huffs at her but complies. 

“I was at the library grabbing books that I wanted to reference in my thesis when I saw a little girl in the stacks. I thought it was strange, so I asked her why she was alone and apparently she’d wandered off and gotten lost. I helped her find her father and then he and I had a chat,” he explains. “Actually, he said he was doing research for Ghost Hunt UK.”

Georgie gets a thoughtful look on her face. “Wait, did you get his name?”

“He said his name was Martin,” he supplies.

“And the little girl was named Agnes, right?” she asks.

That makes Jon blink at her, slightly startled. “Yes, actually. Do you know them?”

“Yeah, I hire him sometimes when I don’t have time to do all the proper research for an episode. Melanie recommended him to me. He’s really good, actually,” Georgie explains.

While _ What the Ghost _ can be kind of ridiculous at times, Georgie does actually pride herself in doing thorough and accurate research for her episodes. If she is willing to hire Martin he must be good at research. Though, Jon had guessed that from the fact that he had come to pick up actual physical books from the library (which, in his opinion, not enough people do these days).

“He’s a good father, too,” she continues. “He loves his daughter a lot. I guess he wanted to study literature or creative writing in uni but dropped everything to get a well paying job to raise Agnes. He’s raising her all by himself.”

Jon frowns. “Really? What happened to the other parent?”

“Melanie said the guy up and left before Agnes was even born,” Georgie replies with a shrug. “I guess he never even contacted him about child support or anything. He’s doing it all by himself.”

Jon’s frown deepens. Martin seems like a perfectly lovely man with an intelligent young daughter. He can’t imagine why someone would up and leave that behind. He isn’t really the sort for kids himself but if that opportunity were presented to him-

“Why do you care so much, anyways?” Gerry questions, startling him out of his reverie. “You’ve only had one conversation with the man.”

Jon looks blankly at him. He actually doesn’t know. He does not usually think this much about people who are basically strangers to him. 

Gerry gets this shit-eating grin across his face. Oh no. 

“You fancy him, don’t you?” he teases.

“_ What _?”

Georgie laughs. “Oh that’s it, isn’t it? He _ is _cute, so I don’t blame you.” She grins at him. “I could put you into contact with him if you’d like.” 

“No, that’s quite alright, _ Georgina _,” he says, glaring at her. He only calls her by her full name when he’s really annoyed with her. “I don’t actually need you to set up dates for me.”

“You could have fooled me, _ Jonathan _,” she replies pointedly.

They bicker in that vein for a while, Gerry occasionally chiming in with teasing comments, but she blessedly lets the subject drop. It does give him a lot to think about though.

***

It is about a week later when Jon runs into them again. He’s headed to the library again to grab some more books to take notes. Georgie would probably argue that he has plenty done right now and things set aside in his flat already for research but he has free time and likes to be productive.

The pair are standing near the desk at the front of the library. Martin has a stack of books in one hand and is holding Agnes’s hand in the other, standing as tall as ever in a slightly faded red jumper and jeans. Agnes is looking around curiously at the building, as children left to their own devices are wont to do, and locks eyes with Jon.

“Hello Jon!” she says, her face breaking into a smile. 

Martin startles and turns around, looking surprised when he spots Jon. His expression quickly turns to a smile, though. “Oh, hi Jon!”

“Hello Martin, Agnes,” he greets. “You finished up everything you needed then?” he gestures to the books in Martin’s arms.

“Oh, yes,” he says, looking at the books as if he had forgotten they were there. “I got everything that they needed for the episode and they’re done with filming so I won’t need to be finding anything last minute for them.”

Jon is impressed. He has met some of the Ghost Hunt UK crew before, of course. Georgie is friends with some of them and drags him out to go to the pub every once in a while when they’re there. He never really pegged them as the type to do especially thorough research, but he supposes he has never interacted with them in a professional setting. And from what Georgie said, Martin himself knows how to do very meticulous research.

“I mentioned you to Georgie and she said that you are very good at that. Coming from her it’s high praise, I know that she can get very particular about things like that,” he replies.

Martin’s face lights up in recognition. “You know Georgie Barker?” he asks.

Jon nods. “Yes, for years now. We became friends in undergrad and while I decided to continue with my education, she ended up doing _ What the Ghost _. We’ve kept in fairly close contact, I was even in an episode.”

“Which one?” Martin asks. He seems genuinely intrigued, a small smile on his face.

“It was about classic horror tropes in media,” he answers. “I tried to include horror movies and other mediums but, well, my expertise is in literature so it mostly ended up being about that from my end.” He shrugs a little. “I don’t think it was a particularly popular episode but Georgie and I enjoyed ourselves.”

“Oh, I remember that episode actually,” Martin says. “I really enjoyed listening to you both rag on HP Lovecraft for like ten minutes. God knows the man deserved it.”

“Just because the man invented a new genre of horror does not mean that he is exempt from criticism for his awful personality and opinions, especially when it bled so heavily into his work,” Jon states, in a voice that indicates that he has not only said this exact sentence many times, but probably while arguing. 

He locks eyes with Martin to see the man’s expression, eyes crinkled and mouth in a wry smile that reads with clear amusement. Jon flushes slightly with embarrassment. He then notices that Agnes is still standing there, the typical bored expression of a child who has been excluded from a conversation between two adults and is stuck there until they are done. 

“What about you, Agnes?” Jon asks. “Do you like to read?”

She blinks in surprise before breaking into a wide grin. “Yes! Ms. Webber says that I’m a better reader than the other kids in my class.”

“We’re always having to find her new books to read. She goes through them so quickly, it’s hard to keep up,” Martin comments, smiling fondly down at his daughter.

Jon chuckles. “I remember being the same way when I was younger,” he comments. “What are your favorite books, Agnes?”

She screws up her freckled little face in thought. “Well, Dad and I are reading the Harry Potter books right now. We’re only on book three but I really like them.” Agnes thinks a moment longer and her face lights up. “Oh, I just finished _ the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe _!”

Jon smiles down at her. “Ah, yes. I read those books when I was around your age. What did you think?”

“It was brilliant!” she says, obviously delighted to get to talk about this with someone new who understands. “The final battle was so cool! All of the Pevensies got to fight alongside Narnia and Aslan killed the Witch. Then they were kings and queens!”

“I’ve always been partial to the scene at the Stone Table,” Jon comments. “Lucy and Susan watching Aslan come back to life after seeing him die was always a very vivid image in my mind.”

Agnes nods vigorously. “Yeah! Aslan and Lucy are my _favorites_, so I was really sad when he died,” she tells him. “Dad has the whole series, so I just started _Prince Caspian_.”

Jon smiles down at her and his eyes crinkle at the edges. “That’s another very good book, I think you’ll enjoy it a lot. Though, my favorite in the series is still _ Voyage of the Dawn Treader _.”

Her eyes widen and she looks up at Martin, who is looking at the pair with utmost fondness. “Dad, can we come talk to Jon again when I finish the books?” Agnes asks.

“I mean, I suppose that depends on what Jon thinks,” Martin says, looking at Jon with a soft smile. 

“I certainly wouldn’t be opposed to it,” Jon assures him.

“We should invite him over for dinner!” she tells Martin and then looks at Jon. “Dad’s cooking is really good, I promise!”

“Alright, Agnes,” Martin says placatingly. He looks at Jon, his smile turned apologetic. “You don’t have to, of course, but I think having you over for dinner could be very nice.”

Jon stops for a moment, taking in this little family. There is Martin, who is tall and handsome and kind. His brown curls are a little messy but his eyes are _ bright _and his smile is open. He already seems like the kind of person that Jon could really, truly bond with. There is also Agnes, who is this whip-smart firecracker of a child. Agnes, who really reminds him of himself as a child. Talking to her fills him with the kind of paternal feelings he was sure he just didn’t have.

All of this is why Jon replies, “Yes, actually, I think that would be quite enjoyable.”

Martin starts a bit, looking pleasantly surprised at the response. “Oh, well what day would be best for you? I can’t really do weekdays because I have a 9-to-5 and Agnes has school, but my weekends are pretty free. Next Saturday, maybe?” he suggests. 

Jon thinks for a moment. He had planned to do some grading on Saturday, but he could surely cut it off early to go to dinner. Anything he doesn’t finish he could do on Sunday, after all.

“Saturday evening should work fine,” Jon agrees.

“Okay, then…” Martin digs around in his pocket and pulls out his phone, tapping on the screen before handing it to Jon. “Put your number in and I’ll text you about the details.”

Jon nods and carefully taps his name and number into the phone and hands it back to Martin. He is oddly excited about this dinner and he doesn’t know why. Is it because it has been literal _ years _since he had last had to do this song and dance of getting to know someone in a casual setting? Is it nervousness about spending time with a father and his child, inserting himself into their family? He isn’t sure. It could be many things.

Martin smiles softly at him. “I’ll message you later so you have my number,” he promises. “I’ll let you get back to your day. Bye, Jon.”

“Bye, Jon!” Agnes says, grinning widely while waving at him.

“Bye, Agnes. Bye, Martin,” he says in return. “I’ll talk to you later, I suppose.”

“Yeah, talk to you later,” Martin says.

Jon turns with one last wave and walks deeper into the library.

***

Jon walks up the steps to the Blackwood house feeling more nervous than he has in years. If he’s being perfectly honest, he has been panicking about this all week. This has, of course, provided Georgie and Gerry with more ammo against him than they should ever rightfully have and they have been merciless in their teasing. He has taken it, though, because they also give very good advice (though much of it has boiled down to “if you calm down and just act like your normal self you should be fine” which, however correct, feels patronizing). 

He takes a moment to look at the house. It's a fairly average London townhouse, a tall brick thing squished between the other houses on the block. The neighborhood is fairly nice, one of those that is filled with families and retired elders. It's quiet and small trees line the streets. The word idyllic comes to mind. 

Jon raps his knuckles against the door and waits, rocking back and forth a bit on his feet. The door opens to reveal Agnes grinning at him, her red hair pulled back into a braid with overalls and a red and white striped shirt. 

“Jon!” she says excitedly. “Dad is cooking in the kitchen so he told me to let you in.”

“Thank you very much, Agnes,” Jon replies.

The inside of the Blackwood home is just as nice as the outside. The living room has a decent sized grey couch set against walls painted a tasteful pale blue. There’s a coffee table stacked with various books. From the titles it seems to be a mix of both Agnes and Martin’s books. There is a counter with tall chairs set near it that opens up to the kitchen, where Martin can be seen cooking.

“Hello, Jon,” Martin greets with a small wave. “Dinner shouldn’t be too long so just make yourself comfortable in the living room.”

Jon nods and moves to sit on the couch. Agnes follows him, smiling up at him. 

“I was wondering,” she says suddenly. “What you were at the library for?”

“Ah, you mean when we met?” he asks. She nods in response. “Well, I am trying to get my doctorate and to do that I have to write a very long paper called a thesis. I was getting some books to read for research on it.”

“Oh! So what’s it about?” Agnes questions. She seems genuinely curious and like a very bright child so he thinks for a moment about how to explain it.

“Well, I am looking at a time period and the books written during that time period and seeing how what happened in real life affected what they wrote,” he explains. “Specifically I am looking at how it affects horror.”

Agnes scrunches up her nose like she’s thinking and says “So like, how things in real life make people scared? And then they write about it?”

Jon smiles gently at her. “Exactly like that, yes.” 

She grins at him, glad that she has figured it out. He can’t help being fond and just a little proud that she grasped the subject so well.

“What about you?” Jon asks. “What are you learning in school?”

Agnes’s eyes light up as she tells him about how last week they were learning about the planets in the solar system and how cool she thinks space is. He nods along with what she’s saying and adds the odd comment about some fact he knows about planets, which gets her excited all over again. Eventually Martin calls them for dinner.

Dinner is a very delicious pasta carbonara paired with a salad. Agnes pushes the salad around her plate a little bit until Martin fixes her with a look that has her looking down and taking a bite. Martin and Jon get into easy conversation about their mutual friends and the paranormal investigation community in general. Agnes pops in with a few questions of her own that they both answer. After they have finished eating, Agnes ends up excitedly talking about how she finished Prince Caspian and that she really liked it but thinks it’s dumb that Peter and Susan can’t return to Narnia because they are too old. Martin and Jon both agree with her wholeheartedly, sharing a fond smile at her enthusiasm. 

The entire scene is so domestic. Jon feels so comfortable with Martin and his daughter. He doesn’t feel out of place, which is unusual because in almost all social situations he feels out of place. He can count on one hand the amount of people he feels completely comfortable around in a social situation (the number is two and the people are Gerry and Georgie). This is an entirely new experience and he is actually enjoying himself much more than he ever would have guessed possible.

Martin excused himself to tuck Agnes into bed upstairs, so Jon has started gathering dishes and taking them to the kitchen. When he finishes that with still no sign of Martin he fills up the sink to begin washing the dishes. 

He hasn’t even started washing them yet when he hears “Oh, you didn’t have to do that!”

Jon turns around to see Martin in the entrance of the kitchen, a slightly displeased expression on his face.

“It’s no trouble. You cooked, after all,” Jon tells him. 

“I can do it myself!” Martin insists.

“Well I’m not just going to watch you wash the dishes, Martin,” he says.

Martin huffs in mock annoyance, given away by the way the corners of his lips turn up slightly. “Well, fine. You can dry then.”

Jon nods his agreement and steps to the side to let Martin access the sink. They begin the routine of washing and drying, working together well for two people who only met recently. Jon and Martin have texted a bit in the intervening week, which has been nice. It’s helped Jon consistently remember to bring his phone with him, at the very least. He thinks they could become very close if given enough time.

“Sorry I took so long,” Martin says. “Agnes was a bit wound up. She was really excited that you came to dinner.”

“I’m glad,” Jon tells him honestly. “She is a very smart child. I expect that will get her very far.”

Martin smiles fondly and laughs. “Yeah, someday she will be smarter than me, I know it. I’m proud of her.”

“You should be.”

Martin hums and stays quiet a spell. It’s a comfortable silence, punctuated by the sounds of soapy water moving, a sponge scrubbing, and plates being set down. 

“What’s academia like?” Martin asks. 

Jon remembers that Martin didn’t really get to do the whole university thing and hums in thought. “I mean, I enjoy it. It’s a lot of learning, thinking. That part I love. Being able to think for myself and put my thoughts down for others to read and learn from.”

“What don’t you like then?” Martin questions. Jon sees him look at him out of the corner of his eye.

“The bureaucracy,” he answers simply. “There are a lot of things that are the way they are because someone decided it hundreds of years ago and people that are in charge because they’ve been there the longest and have the money for it.” He pauses, considering. “I mean, there is also teaching. As a doctorate student I’m expected to teach courses and I’ve never been very good at that sort of thing.”

“Really?” Martin asks, seeming genuinely surprised. When Jon gives him a confused look he continues. “Well, you’ve just been very good at explaining things to Agnes. Most people don’t even try because she’s so young. They think that because she’s only eight years old she couldn’t possibly understand, but you take the time to explain things to her and answer her questions. You can’t be _ that _ bad of a teacher.”

“You should tell that to my students,” Jon tells him. His tone is deadpan but he can feel the pleased smile making its way onto his face. 

Jon finishes drying the last dish and puts it onto the drying rack. He turns to see Martin looking at him, a gentle little smile on his lips and a look in his eye he can’t quite identify. 

He dries his hands on a towel and says “Why are you looking at me like that?”

Martin hums a noncommittal sound and steps into Jon’s space. He’s suddenly overwhelmed by Martin’s presence: the smell of him, his body heat, his hand laying gently on his arm. 

“I was wondering if I could kiss you,” Martin asks.

Jon’s mind goes completely blank for a split second, not having anticipated this when he accepted the invitation to dinner, but he finds that he would very much like to kiss Martin Blackwood.

“I think that would be very agreeable,” he replies.

Martin’s smile widens ever so slightly and he lays his and gently on Jon’s cheek and leans down to kiss him. The kiss is soft and slow. It feels like a beginning, like an invitation. Jon lets his brain rest for once in his life and just goes along with the sensations. He lets himself feel how _ good _this is. 

The kiss ends and Martin stays there, looking down at Jon and rubbing his thumb gently across his cheek. The expression on his face is soft and open and directed at _ Jon _ , of all people. Of all the people in the world, this sweet father decided that he wanted to kiss Jon, to look at him like _ that _.

“This is my way of saying that I’m interested in you,” Martin says.

Jon, who’s brain has apparently has apparently shut off entirely, only musters a “What?”

“I hope you don’t think I go around kissing random men, Jon,” he teases. “I do have a daughter to think about.”

“Yes, of course not. Sorry,” Jon says all in a rush. “I’m interested in you as well. I’m just surprised.”

“Really? I thought I’d been rather obvious.”

“I am regularly teased about the fact that I apparently don’t notice very obvious things, actually,” he grumbles. “And I do not usually get date requests. I am a distant and rude academic who is asexual, among other things that people tend to find undesirable.”

“Well if you would like to go on a date with me, _ I _certainly don’t find any of those things undesirable,” Martin assures him. He pauses a moment before saying “Well, except for the rude part but I figure that I can just tell you to knock it off.”

Jon laughs. “Yeah, that will usually do it.”

“So? Will you go on a date with me?” Martin asks. 

Jon looks at Martin and thinks about meeting him in the library, when he brought his lost daughter back to the man and fell into a surprisingly easy conversation. He thinks about finding him again and actually _ wanting _to talk to him again. He thinks about Gerry and Georgie immediately knowing that there was something to this man, that Jon really liked him. He thinks about tonight, too, where he fit so comfortably into Martin and Agnes’s lives. He thinks about the kiss.

“Yes,” Jon answers. “I would like to go on a date with you.”

A grin lights up Martin’s face and he leans back in to kiss Jon. Jon happily kisses him back. They fit together, Jon thinks, like two puzzle pieces. They compliment each other. Something tells him that this will work out.

They both hear a small giggle from behind them and they freeze, turning to the door. In a small crack in the kitchen door stands Agnes, laughing behind her hand as she watches the two men stare speechlessly at her. Martin takes his hand from where it lay on Jon’s hip and visibly switches into his role as a father. 

[ ](https://www.flickr.com/photos/183266292@N05/48499111211/in/dateposted-public/)

“Now I could have sworn I put you to bed _ half an hour ago _,” he says sternly, though his face betrays his fondness with a small smile. 

Her grin only widens and she lets out another laugh before running from the door back up the stairs, bare feet smacking against the hardwood floors the whole way. Jon is still blinking owlishly, trying to piece together the encounter while half of his brain is still focused on the fact that he kissed Martin twice and agreed to date him. 

Martin turns to Jon with a smile, hands sitting on his hips. “Sorry about that,” he apologizes. “It’s just how kids are, you know? Go sit in the living room and give me, like, 10 minutes to put her back in bed?”

Jon looks at Martin, at the sheepish little grin on his face, the freckles dotted across his nose, his bright eyes, and smiles. 

“Yes, I think I can do that,” he answers easily.

Things may be hard in the future, as they often are, but saying yes to Martin is the easiest thing Jon has ever done. Coming into both of their lives has been easy, in fact, and he doesn’t plan on leaving anytime soon.

**Author's Note:**

> i did it! i finished this fic! it was much harder than it should have been!  
i have basically had this in mind since i heard about the rqbb because i was one of the people on twitter who helped come up with it. after everything i am very happy with how this turned out and marina's accompanying art actually made me add a scene i hadn't had in mind but was too cute not to add.  
the title, by the way, is from an emily dickenson poem. because i like her and choose to believe that she is one poet that jon and martin could both agree is good.  
my artist was the lovely marina, who you can find at marina-does-things on tumblr and @vermilion_shade on twitter.  
i can be found at pitchblackkoi on both tumblr and twitter if you want to chat.


End file.
